Dr. James Giordano: The Brain is the Battlefield of the Future

Good afternoon and thank you for coming today's MWI speaker event with dr. James Giordano dr. Giordano is a professor in the Department of manag neurology and biochemistry chief the nearest ethics Studies program of the Pellegrino center for clinical bioethics and co-director of the O'Neil Pellegrino program in brain science and global health law and policy at Georgetown University Medical Center as well dr. Giordano currently Serves an appointed member of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Advisory Council on human research protections as a researcher and tas leader of the European Union human brain

project and has served as an appointed member of the neuroethics legal and social issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA and senior advisory fellow of the strategic multi-layer assessment branch of the Joint staff of the Pentagon it's quite a bit in his spare time he has authored over 260 publications and neuroscience and your ethics seven books and 13 government white papers are neuro technology ethics and biosecurity and is an editor in chief of the international journal of philosophy ethics and humanities in medicine dr. Giordano thank you for joining us today no

no don't applaud now wait till the end because the performance pressure is Much too severe if you do that and my thought is you're probably not going to applaud at the end but what I'm gonna hear is the slamming shut of your stink there's the fear that's good that's been successful it's a pleasure to be here it's a real honor to be here is cadet Yoshi in the audience hello no PDAs but I do want to come up and say hello your mother says hello I'm just everybody has a mother and no hers so what

we're here to talk about today is the fact that the Brain is and will be the 21st century battlescape in many ways end of story we could stop it there and I can let you go back to your respective units and think about that for a while but I'm here to tell you absolutely as much as there's a big old Tyrolean nose on this face that you will encounter some form of neuro cognitive science that has been weaponized not only in your military career but in your personal and professional lives you're respected with Those two

things coincide or not so the idea of the brain as the battle scape is very important and more importantly is this other act that's up there which is WMD square please get used to this because this is going to be part of the idea of a regular warfare and ongoing military innovation in your careers weapons of mass destruction and disruption disruption and influence will be the key to creating pure capabilities and Asymmetrical engagements let me say it again it will be the key to creating pier capability in a symmetrical relations and engagements if we talk

about what brain science is let me just give you a little bit of brief background on this field that is now called neuroscience as a titular field as a named field neuroscience has only been in existence for 40 years I know that because I've been a neuroscientist for about 38 of those 40 years when I First applied to get into a program in neuroscience or only for neuroscience programs in the continental United States for right now at this particular point there are well over 200 dedicated University and collegiate programs several programs at the junior college

level several programs at the high school level and many many dozens of independent think tanks and philanthropic organizations solely devoted to brain sciences that's just Here in the United States furthermore what becomes critically important for you to understand is that brain science is not just the United States enterprise or effort nor is it singularly an effort of the United States allies worldwide increasingly it is becoming an international multinational global and independently exercised event and endeavor which increases the capability of the brain scientists developed not only new theories but have more Sophisticated tools I like this

slide a lot because what it presents few ladies and gentlemen is a century a century long history of brain science even before it was called neuroscience look let's face it for as long as human beings were looking in some reflective pool and recognize that that thing looking back at them was themselves there was some interest in what makes me me what makes me think what makes me feel What makes me behave the way I do and you behave and think the way you do but is my sense of self do I have free will and

what is the nature of that and how can we affect that in a variety of ways that go from the non-kinetic all the way to the Connecticut if we take centenary jumps into the era of the Enlightenment we can see the great thinkers that came before and the Enlightenment inclusive but not limited to people like Rene Descartes Pondered the idea of what that means cogito ergo sum I think therefore I am the inverse of the statement that in many cases was implicit but now becomes ever more explicit is what makes me think and if I

can understand what makes me think and makes you think and makes you feel then that understanding may in fact flavor if not directly influence the way you and I interact but more than that if in fact I understand how it is that your brain does what your brain Does I may be able to access your brain and affect your brain indirectly indirectly and what this allows us to do is to create tremendous potential and possibility and probability potential possibility and probability of what the brain sciences can do and will do remember these three letters a

a and a keep them as your viable mantra for the duration of this course today and throughout your professional careers and each and all the opportunities that you Have to interface and try to understand the power that the brain and cognitive sciences can you a the ability to assess the brain and its functions a the ability to access the brain on a variety of levels from the subcellular all the way to the social a the ability to affect the brains and the individuals in which those brains are embodied and the ecologies in which those individuals

enact engage encounter from the level of the individual to the group to the Community to the populational look at the power that understanding tools and techniques the brain sciences afford it's there before you on the screen obviously if in fact this gives me some insight to the way people interact inclusive of the way they may interact in bellicose aggressive violent and volatile ways and it also confers upon me certain powers to be able to influence that alter that change that mitigate that then clearly I'm able to Use the brain sciences as we have tried repeatedly

in the past to influence the postures and capabilities not only of our own individuals who engaged in warfare intelligence and national security operations but those who seek to threaten us in other words we can utilize these things in national security intelligence and defense please look at the timeline a mere 10 years ago 2008 the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council convened a Group to create a report dedicated to if and why and how brain sciences might be viable valid and of value in national security intelligence and defense operations and in 2008 they did a

5-year retrospective and came to the conclusion that although these things may be valid their relative viability value at that particular time rendered them not ready for primetime play our group working with others internationally inclusive of the Nuffield Council in the UK proceeded Forward from 2008 and did a slightly deeper dive looking at international capabilities limitations and de limitations in the brain sciences and came to a very very different set of conclusions not only were the brain sciences increasingly being considered interested and used for possibilities of national security intelligence and defense but they would continue to

be so as more and more countries internationally developed the Capabilities and the specialized agendas to be able to look into the brain and affect the brain so much so that by 2014 the exact same committee reconvened and recognized at that time that the brain science is indeed were ready and in operational prime time for warfare intelligence and national security agenda in other words it is valid valuable and already in operational play the brain is the current and future battle space or at least one that can be Leveraged in those ways to be able to create

tremendous effect with fairly little investment of engagement in other words what it allows us to do is assess the brain access the brain and affect the brain I'll unapologetically repeat myself throughout this lecture to drive home this point with regard to these capabilities because each and all have gravitas importance and operational leverage ability that said what are these techniques and technologies that Have rendered this capability and if you will do political the and social power well I have them here before you generalization we could parse them down into two discrete domains first the assessment neuro

technologies that do exactly as the name would imply they are based upon various tools that we can use to assess those structures and functions of the brain that may be involved in those processes cognition emotion and behaviors humans are tool Users rarely however do we turn over a rock look around the corner appear under the bed just to know what's under there we use at very very least the knowledge we have gained from turning the rock over and looking under the bed around the corner and very often those things that we find under the rock

under the bettor around the corner become tools for us to use in a variety of other engagements brain science like any other science and technology is no Different earlier in the day at lunch major and I had a conversation about the viability of different types of research science for Sciences sake science just to know because that's where your interests lie oh look I've been in academic for well over four decades and I can tell you that that kind of research is wonderful but when that research is generated for a purpose and when it's funded and

when that purpose deals with those things That are near and dear to the health survivability flourishing and protection of kith and kin then that research is operational research that has an end goal of use this is what this is about it's not just a question of trying to figure out what makes the brain tick and the way it's built it's can we get in there to effect the ticking and talking and by affecting the way that brain is built and the way it functions influenced in ways that are kinetic and Non kinetic the attitudes beliefs

thoughts emotions activities and relative vulnerabilities and predispositions of those individuals for whom both we are responsible in terms of our own forces perhaps to make them better more insulated against injury operationally protected and enhanced and those who may threaten us to do that we need to intervene so the other dimension of these neuro technologies our Interventional neuro tech knowledge ease now I'm not going to bring it down the rabbit hole into what each and all of these things do because you don't want to be a neuroscientist I'm certainly not going to make you a neuroscientist

in an hour but I think it becomes important to dial into a little bit more clarity and with further granularity what we're really talking about when we talk about these relative assessments and interventional technologies in the Former case probably the one that gives the most rise to both provocation and contention are various forms of neuro imaging the ability to image the living brain to be able to see what brain areas are differentially active as we engage in different thoughts feelings emotions and tasks and to then correlate the interaction of those nodes and networks with discrete

patterns that occur not only in individuals but in groups of individuals in other words if I can see How this gentleman brain worked whether he's awake or falling asleep don't I catch up the idea there is that I can then understand all I'm only kidding I can only I can understand better relax can only understand better not only what makes him happy agitated engaged we're tired but I can then in some way alter my discourse to be able to make him feel happier more engaged and less tired in so doing I can take the information

I have about the Way a brain works and I can put it to good use practical use think about this if I know what makes you tick as an individual and I'm then able to generate patterns of how you as an individual relate to are similar to or different from other individuals I may be able to then generate information that allows me to interact with you on ways that are more meaningful to our level of interaction in other words the more I know about what makes you tick the more My interactions can be geared with

you to make you tick the way I want you to the way I want you to obviously it takes some energy to put people into a big magnet and scan their brain there's a whole bunch of things that are limitations of brain imaging we recognize that that's part of the mission we seek to delimit those particular constraints and through the use of Ko register different forms of neuro imaging make it better some of These forms of neuro imaging are feel double operation Eliza belen field missions some of them are not we're seeking to make these

things more operational izybelle not only for military medicine to assess individuals who may have incurred brain injury and or the effects of brain injury inclusive of things like PTSD and other forms of neuropsychiatric disorders but also to understand better how it is that our individual is able to Think through certain situations how their brains work and be able to classify those in individuals and perhaps specify the way we train them but we sustain that training then we maximize their performance we can use other methods as well genetics biomarkers and information and that information is critical

one of the things you must learn is as military personnel your demographic biological Social and psychological information exists in your jacket and is in fact retrievable in real time that information becomes ever more important as we try to understand the unis of you and the nature to classify that information hold that information secure doesn't only exist on the medical side with regard to your HIPAA records but increasingly is becoming a concern for national security when these large scale big databases of Brain structure and function physiology biopsychosocial demographics become ever more available and evermore relevant to

what's making you tick was making you talk what's making you strong what's making you vulnerable and the fact that other nations inclusive of China and Russia are engaging in large-scale neuro Big Data initiatives to be able to create large-scale databases that can join not only imaging and physiological but as well as other forms of phenotypic And genetic data of the entirety of populations renders great power because there's great capability in that information to know where key points of strength and vulnerability may lie and also to intercede to inject information in to in some way be

able to affect what appears to be your medical record your personal record the evidence that is you and we can take that step to go one step further the more I know about you and the more I know about the way your brain Works as individuals groups communities even populations the more I can utilize non-kinetic means such as informational means of narratives iconographies semiotic s-- to influence your emotions and your behaviors we can do this subliminally through computer images we can do this more liminal e through the types of engagements interactions that we engage the

psychological operations and informational operations we can train better our Human Terrain teams to Be able to interact with individuals and variety of cultures groups settings and ecologies to improve their performance so as to be less distancing and more ameliorating we can go further than that as well we can also utilize these interventional technologies in those way that Mia will be directly affect the brain probably the one that you've heard about most recently most contemporary in the literature is the possibility to use Some form of directed energy to affect physiology peripherally and also to affect a

physiology and health of the brain case in point here US embassy personnel in Havana and possibly in China and of course there's not a lot that I can tell you about that although I am one of the researchers on that particular project but this seems to be wholly indicative and supportive of the fact that this was at least some form of directed energy whether it was wholly Intentional or not still remains to be definitively decided however the pattern of insult and injury to those individuals in the pattern of injury of who was affected strongly suggests

that this was an intentional and directed engagement and that this represents a beta test the possible probe of the directed-energy neural weapon and there are a number of countries that had developed initiatives and agenda towards developing just these types of things The United States included but you'll also have a whole host of other things that can go bump and bang in your brain the more we understand the specificity of the brain on a very granular level the more we're able to derive and develop specific types of drugs that not only can enhance and optimize the

performance of our people but can also be used to mitigate militated in some cases manifest profound morbid changes in their people in other words against The hostile other drugs can be exceedingly specific and as I'll show you in a moment can be very very much used to individualize weapon ology in terms that we call precision pathology or precision effect we can go further clearly one of the things we can also do is transcranial neuromodulation the idea of going through the skull to modulate the node network activity of the brain to optimize the performance of key

individuals in certain tasks and Performances that are relatively to the missional space and we can also do that against hostile or perhaps belligerent others we can go further to implant certain brain machine interfaces these are many of the DARPA programs that you may hear of now probably the one that is most most notorious in a very good sense is something called the n3 program which is the non-invasive neurosurgical neuromodulation program being run by their program manager duke' al Mundy the Idea here is to put minimal sized electrodes in a network within a brain through only

minimal intervention to be able to read and write into the brain function in real-time remotely the United States is not alone in such efforts and then of course you also have the things a little bit more traditional if we talk about things that can be operable in the biochemical space we ordinarily talk about drugs bugs toxins and ever more we're considering Devices at the last biological toxins and weapons convention the Rev Cohn it was then raised by the Australia group that we need to be a little bit more salient and our attention to those possible

neuro technological devices that may be able to be weaponized our group has also argued that the current considerations and extant categories of the biological toxins and weapons conventions are not detailed enough to be able to appreciate or keep pace with The advances in this form of science that can be weaponized that poses a risk and threat on the battlespace so how then can we use these elements as weapons means of contending against others formal definition of a weapon right under the Oxford Old English Dictionary means of contending against others and we can do that in

a number of ways we can militate their behaviors and their thoughts in some ways as to make them more amenable to what we do the Idea of positive weapon ology or we can in fact mitigate and in some cases completely nullify their capability will or engagement to fight if we combine those two definitions into one what you find is those agents that will either change individuals thoughts vulnerabilities volatility to violence and aggression or incur morbidity dysfunction and/or mortality in such a way as to then mitigate the engagement altogether you still with me that said We

can break down any form of weapon ology into two discrete categories soft weapons and hard weapons in the former categorization soft weapons include but are not limited to such things like economic leveraging to create economics market values market presence presence of international bargaining tables to develop international power and leverage as a soft weapon clearly the more we're able to make an impact in a field in a dimension by virtue of research medicine Technology infiltration to a variety of areas of the public space the more were able to yield economic strong-arming economic leveraging I think an

important consideration that I'll reiterate later in this particular lecture is that there are countries outside the United States and/or the West that are increasing their capabilities by intent in the brain sciences so as to be able to gain this type of economic leveraging and International global markets in medicine science technology and the military most notably among them is China we'll talk more about that momentarily we can also utilize weapons and more of a soft approach as I mentioned earlier the more I know about what makes you tick the more I might be able to do

things like weaponize the approach that I then take towards you in my interactions and engagements with you here we can utilize the brain sciences for psychological Operations most notably one of the DARPA programs run by the case management by the program manager Bill K's beer dr. bill K's beer who subsequently went on to be a program manager at Lockheed Martin and run their brain machine interface in programs bill Kay Spears program was called narrative networks and one component of the narrative networks project with something called neural narratives if we understand how it is that brains

and individuals groups And populations respond to certain forms of imaging memes iconographies engagements the more we may be able to tail those things through our psychological operations propaganda me so to be able to engage these individuals more positive ways or in ways that are more influential to be able to direct their behaviors their predispositions and perhaps their engagements with us on a variety of levels from the individual all the way Up to the political but then of course we move into the more harder forms of weapons things such as bullets and bombs and here once

again let me reiterate we're talking about on the neuro side a drugs bugs toxins and devices but of course if we spill over the idea of soft weapon ology into a hard weaponization we also see the use of bio data as a viable weapon manipulating bio data so that I can then put into your particular Medical records subtle information that may change the disposition of whether you're sick or not change how you're treated influence the postures that go to you in terms of insurance care viability for military service by altering that information by changing those

data by purloining those data I essentially changed the U of U and I can do that in very subtle and insidious ways furthermore I can do that on a variety of different levels that Can affect key individuals so that in fact your medical record changes so thereby render you incapable or at least invalid to be able to serve in a way of serving or I can do that and one elektra larger scale groups populations and if I change those data I change the way you're being regarded and treated and I can do that in one

of two ways I can do it in such a way they're going to be regarded in a negative sense or I can do it in such a way that I'm going to treat You incorrectly if I say for example do you have a particular allergy or you have particular sensitivities or you have a particular disorder you will be treated for that and that could then harm your health and your stability in both a short Wars approach as well as a long Wars approach but if we take a look at this in a little more detail

you can see that once again it falls back to the idea of what can we do to ours and what can be done to others clearly one Dimension one domain of operational viability and value is to enhance the capabilities of the combat and intelligence operator across a range of scale abilities in both general purpose and more select forces and this is the idea of neuro enablement neuro enablement you will hear this referred to in a variety of different ways performance optimization enhancement enablement maximization these terms mean something a number of years ago our Group was

tasked with the Air Force to develop a lexicon a nomenclature that would be able to define these in more precise ways and not bore you with that now but the idea of enablement gives forth I think a particular meaning that's relevant you're enabling individuals to do some aspects of a performance of a task that is germane and justified to their operational mission and that is in fact done with regard to protection of their charges so In other words we're saying we're going to make you good to go and we've decided that this is good the

reason this can become problematic of course is that what definition of good are we using but we define whoever the proverbial we may be to be good might be quite different than what they who have the proverbial vais is and as a consequence we have to keep a much broader wing of opportunity and possibility open to Be aware for the potential benefits burns and risks that this type of engagement may pose what types of things can we do to make our people better if you will well certainly we can use a variety of advanced psychopharmacological

formica logics in other words drugs and I refer you to a wonderful book written by a colleague of mine professor Jonathan Moreno called mind wars first edition came out in 2006 second edition came out in 2012 and Professor Moreno does a very good job in defining explaining the history and historicity of the way the brain and cognitive sciences had been used in national security intelligence and defense operations both by the United States and more globally and what we see is that this is certainly not a new event we can look back into antiquity and see

that there have been attempts to try to maximize the performance capability sustainability and protection Of those individuals who are operational war fighters literally from ancient Roman Greece all the way to the 20th and now 21st century it's the tools and techniques based upon the understanding and depth that we have that increases the granularity and specificity of effect and increases the sophistication and gravitas of outcome the more we know about the brain the more you can develop ever more selective agents to affect the structures and functions of the brain And cognition emotion and actions and the

more we can do so in a way that's more like sharpshooting rather than buckshot but here respectively drugs can be somewhat dirty what i mean by that is they can have a host of adverse effects some of them side effects some of them direct effects and very often will find is unless were able to deliver the drugs directly to a particular site in the brain or elsewhere in the nervous system they can Have heterogeneity of effects throughout the body that can lead us to some undesirable outcomes but we don't need to be limited to drugs

no no we can also use a variety of computational brain machine interfaces that are both closed and open loop and these include things like transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation stimulating the vagus nerve transdermally or if you wanted to get somewhat more invasive but certainly more specific brain machine Interfaces by virtue of deep brain and superficial brain implants and I shall tell you that one of the leading projects in developing state-of-the-art brain implants is a DARPA funded project aimed at the medical side for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric spectrum disorders and this program is called

subnets systems based neuro technologies for emerging therapies but you also need to appreciate is that that DARPA program Like any program that is oriented towards engaging brain function to then alter those functions in certain ways directional ways can be harnessed what's called dual use medical purposes that are then deep purposed to medicine and use for other agenda inclusive of warfighter enable in their enhancement furthermore we understand that there are a number of nations outside the United States some of whom are allied others that are at least competitive if not Combative that are engaged in these

types of programs looking at the capability for transcranial and deep intracranial modulation of brain function to improve the functional performance of military and intelligence operators across a range of viable missional tasks we are not alone in these pursuits and I think that's something needs to be appreciated but it's not just a question of what we can do to our own because very often in Raising these questions we tend to what I will err on the side of moral probity and we recognize that there are particular limitations limits boundaries thresholds that cannot and perhaps should not

be crossed in terms of what we can do and if we intend to cross them we only cross them with consent and that consent is highly contingent upon the necessity of a continuity of research and clinical care understanding what happens to the individual once they've Been enabled and enhanced and what may happen when they're no longer enabled in enhanced in other words more colloquy when Superman goes back to being Clark Kent what happens to Clark become as the burden obligation of our responsibilities however those ethics are not homogeneous on the world stage and the idea

of pushing the envelope of what can be done to the combat warfighter and intelligence operator and perhaps more broadly to those Individuals who may oppose particular regimes end or maybe military fighters against your own regime it's very often bounded by and in some cases D constricted by philosophies cultures and ethics of those individuals who may be competitive if not combative to us so in other words this can also be weaponized against others and this is where we get into the idea of novel neural weapons once again this is not necessarily new but the momentum of

this dimension of The field has accelerated as a consequence of increased understanding of the brain increased capability to develop tools and techniques to access and affect the brain so what are we seeing here well take a look we see in close neuro pharmaceuticals and organic toxins what's new about this is the enclosed nature of this increasingly we're not seeing these things as weapons of mass destruction against growth aspects of The population although certainly many neural weapons such as sarin gas and VX and other forms of neurotoxic agents can be leveraged against large groups of people

but that's messy more specifically perhaps might be targeting individuals on a level that allows either direct attribution or covert engagement with non attribution let me give an example of what I mean so this gentleman is the leader of some group a political group a social group a Combative group and under the available white flag he and I announced to have some kind of a caucus a meeting and during that meeting what I do is I lace the rim of his drink or his pen or his seat or something in his medium environment with very very

low dose drug or toxins that are going to affect his stability they may affect the way his brain works and as a consequence of that they can affect the functions of his brain his thought patterns his relative Emotionality and the behaviors that go along with that one of two things might happen he might be completely incapacitated as a consequence of this or he may change his level of capacity and engagement so that he went into the meeting thinking I hate this guy this guy's my enemy he walks out of the mingle I love this guy

this guy's great now what could happen if in fact this is a gentleman who has charismatic financial elected or Dictatorial power it may be that his followers will then follow him blindly he came into the meeting as a leader of those followers who were bellicose were volatile were violent and aggressive he comes out of the meeting he tells them to change their behaviors and they do or I could sever the trust by now he leaves this miss meeting he's espousing a very different feel Safa chol stance and orientation and his followers no longer adhere to

his Precepts his tenets or his lead and I fractured the relative arrangement of trust gage Minh capability that he fostered leaving that population disrupted and vulnerable to intervention to a coup d'etat to Alinta to some type of insertive RIA sumption of leadership you see how this can work furthermore I can use this very tactically some of these agents allow me to assemble the agent on site and not have to stockpile it which allows me to Take the components of this agent into and out of a country relatively covertly target a specific individual change or eliminate

that individual with very little attribution and trace and be able to leave prior to any attribution think Nova Chuck or I could assemble very small quantities of this that would then allow a specific intervention characteristically in a place that would not allow such an intervention think of the use of a derivative of VX in an Airport but I could do more than that I could also incur much broader type of ripple effects and one of the ways I could also do that is with what's called high morbidity neuro microbiologic agents it's a real fancy way

of saying neuro bugs but high morbidity neuro bugs I may not want to kill a lot of people in fact arguably I may assume what is sometimes referred to as the sailor Malan mantra for those of you who may be fans or students of military history you May remember that cellar Mallon Wing Commander cellar Mallon was a South African who flew at the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and he became well-known during the Battle of Britain for shooting up German airplanes but letting them limp home particularly bomber aircraft and they would ask

seller Mallon a Wing Commander why didn't you shoot that plane down and his adage was simple Bennett to have that plane returned home with moon did crew Or spitting up their lungs one dead crewman that they had to attend to and therefore divert their missional capability while in flight then shoot them down because the psychological effect will be rippling and devastating this is sometimes referred to as the Malon effect what can I do I can use a particular bug that be able to now modify through the use of gene editing technique that is ubiquitously available

and fairly easy To use to take a bug that was previously relatively benign and non-pathogenic and make that bug virulent pathogenic dangerous and then what could I do I could introduce that bug in key sites Des Moines Seattle Tampa Newark Houston I get a few people sick I do it on an airplane do it at an airport do it a sporting event do it on Black Friday and then what I would do is I would take credit for that but I want to make sure that at least part of the symptomatic Constellation was not only

neurological was profoundly psychological agitation debilitation sweating stomach problems sleeplessness cardiac problems things that are very we called top down neurological in their effect brain to body and body to brain in the bottom up cascade then what I would do is I would get on the internet and I would put out over the Internet I did it oh yes on that dangerous G group that you should all be afraid of and in fact this is far More ubiquitous than I let on these are only the first cases I've let these buggies go all over the country

and your early warning signs are agitation anxiety worry sleeplessness stomach problems heart problems what have I done I've rippled the sheets of the worried well at first blush I get every hypochondriac running to their physician but its second and third blush I get those individuals who begin to become worried that they may have been exposed To this that the children may have been exposed to this that their loved ones their kin their kids may have been exposed to this of course the physicians the CDC the Public Health Service comes back and says oh no that's

not what's going on but I get back on the internet and I say oh don't you listen to that that's fake that's false your government knows what's going on they can't do anything about it and they can't treat you they're going to end up Quarantine in you how many people would I need to affect we modeled it somewhere between 12 and 240 what would be the effect hang on folks within 41 to 45 days we would crash the united states public health system crashing in so doing I render the United States infrastructure vulnerable either there

or elsewhere see the ripple effect see the disruptive effect I can disrupt an individual from the level of their cell to their system And disrupt individuals on a variety of levels from individuals all the way up to the social fabric and that social fabric may go even further it may be geopolitical and you think just for a moment if you could why would it be of any value at all to affect disrupt and disable individuals who are a u.s. embassy personnel in Havana when did it happen what was happening what would be the benefit in

fracturing a growing economic Political and social trust in that part of the world who would benefit what would be the long-term effects for example of at least indicating that US embassy personnel and foreign service personnel are vulnerable to these types of threats could you impact pair the threat with some type of condition stimulus so now what you're able to do to evoke a response in the worried well I only offer possible suggestions for your speculation and your consideration If you will we can even go further one of the newest developments is that nano particulate matter

can be stabilized for distribution if you're not aware what nano particulate matter is it's that matter which exists on a scale of 1 times 10 to the minus ninth very very small smaller than a cell and we can manufacture materials that have discreet properties that can be controlled by virtue of bioengineering in their physical chemistry to auto aggregate to Be able to aggregate in particular areas based upon their biological and your chemical sensitivity but now we go one step further most recently just a few weeks ago it was announced that you could then aerosolize nanomaterials

and go one step further I can create small robotic units controllable robotic units at the nano scale that these two can be aerosolized to create a nano swarm of bio penetrable materials that you cannot see that can Penetrate all but the most robust biochemical filters that are able to integrate themselves through a variety of membranes mucus membranes and wherever mouth nose ears eyes can be then up taken into the vascular system to create clumping can affect the vascular system of the brain or can directly diffuse into the brain space and these can be weaponized and

they can be done in such a level that their presence is almost impossible to detect And as such the attribution becomes exceedingly difficult to demonstrate how much of this material would I need take a look this is the front of my pen this amount of nano material if be able to maintain and sustain with regard to its deliverability and aerosolization could in fact affect all of you or based upon where I come from New York City all use look at this look at this I'm carrying that material would you see it would have to lug

a giant weapon into the room No I wouldn't and what if in fact I utilized some form of an unmanned aerial device or unmanned ground devices delivery vehicle something like a drone or a bug could I do something with that but let's keep going could I also utilize a whole host of devices to be able to affect individuals close in for example during interrogations during social engagements during Human Terrain team engagements or more remotely in a room in a theater in an airplane and a Bus in a store in a mall the answer is increasingly

yes so this then represents for us both a challenge and an opportunity the challenge is that increasingly what we find is that neuroscience and technology is relatively easy to obtain many of the things that I've just spoken to you about are viable and obtainable directly to the consumer or directly to the scientist we also know that many of the products that are available direct to Consumer can be easily modified to create things that have a much higher weaponization potential but more than that we also recognize that there are dedicated efforts on the part of nation

states and even groups of non-state actors and increasingly virtual nations that are using virtual currencies to fund research efforts in these areas I'd like to think that I'm a smart guy talking to a bunch of very intelligent individuals but let's face It we're not the only smart people in the world and if we're thinking this way there are plenty of other people who are thinking this way too some of them are our allies some of them may be our competitors and some of them are combatants and hostels and this is in fact the reality furthermore

we recognize that the goal particularly among the actions of the United States and her allies is to fight for right and honor but to keep our own honor clean to Take the moral high ground if you will and indeed that has been the case in the majority of the United States engagements throughout our history however one of the things that may creep up here is that there's something of an abrogation a prohibition a prescription against engaging this type of research in its possible translation in the civilian sector you heard earlier in the very nice introduction

that captain bender afforded me that I've had the Opportunity to work with the European Union human brain project specifically as a task leader for dual use brain science and one of the considerations that grew out of that was that absolutely none of those projects in the human brain project again a multinational effort can and should be up taken into warfare intelligence and national security agenda that's viable enough the idea there is that these things should be used for only peaceful Means however this also creates a challenge and the challenge is simple if in fact I

choose not to train in particular ways I choose not to train three days a week if in fact those individuals who may choose to then conflict with me will then train in the ways that I do not and train on the days of the week that I will not they may opportune eyes a select advantage what do we do about that again I think it becomes at least a problematic issue for Discourse because we recognize it in many cases the civilian sector not only is not amenable to engaging in this type of research certainly many

are but in some cases should not engage in this type of research for those very prescriptions that I alluded to momentarily however the question then becomes how do appreciate the international challenge risk and threat that the advancements of the brain sciences and cognitive Sciences offer for global weaponization with the brain as the next battlescape clearly it defines some type of a solution space and there have been those that have posited myself included that there should be more directed more details and more dedicated government efforts in this particular domain so able to advance the brain sciences

ways with sustainable funding to understand what the potential risks and threats are and to develop a stance of preparedness This becomes increasingly important we take a look at those countries that have notable and identify programs of high level of investment of GDP and/or other levels of economic investment to advance the brain sciences and those ways that are either directly usable or have some what I would call explicit dual use capability an important consideration that I want you all to bear is that current estimates based upon trend analysis is that by 2025 greater than 50 Percent

of research development test evaluation and possible use of brain sciences in general will occur outside the West outside the West furthermore we understand that there has been a directed effort in China to be able to engage the current and future five-year plans be able to advance brain science in those ways to be able to have a higher level of gravitas with regard to the research its capability in its translation in medicine and other agenda Inclusive possible dual use in direct use within warfare intelligence and national security this creates opportunities for research tourism medical tourism and

market capture and again that market capture can be leveraged as economic warfare in terms of being able to destabilize the global market in the global economics that is relevant upon this form of bioscience and technology but we also recognize that these things are being Used to military applications certainly there are directed opportunities and directed agendas for doing that within China we also recognize that there have been activities and directed initiatives in the former Soviet Union that have now been translated perpetuated into the current Russian infrastructure of biomedical science or military purposes and a number of

other trees have directed efforts in this Space inclusive of Iran North Korea India Bolivia certainly among the US and its allies you recognize that the United States UK Canada Israel and there are governmental efforts within Europe we recognize also their efforts in Japan but there's another looming threat the threat is the non-state actor the threat is the virtual nation getting established serenity within a serenity so as to be able to say that we are immune or inured to your rules and Regulations essentially possibly destructive diaspora and increasingly what we're seeing is the use of Bitcoin

currencies and the like allow the finances of these types of things to be sustained in ways that we heretofore economically unimaginable if not incapable so as a consequence what we're recognizing is that the threat parameters the risk parameters as well as the challenge and opportunity parameters are growing We're equally concerned about the do-it-yourself community not because this community of biohackers represents an inherently malicious or nefarious group but because of their relative vulnerability to infiltration and we recognize that to such an extent that at present the Federal Bureau of Investigation in this country has dedicated ongoing

efforts to try to maintain continued communication interaction and engagement with this Community so as to be able to better surveil their relative owner ability to purloin meant infiltration manipulation and misuse clearly if we're looking at these things as possible destructive weapons the more characteristic or classic criteria of drugs bugs and toxins meet at least some of the extant categorizations of the biological toxins weapons and chemical conventions however as disruptive agents as those agents that may be assembled developed Anew that do not meet these criteria you can then get skirting of these extant treaties in these

X and signatory documents and as a consequence can develop these means these methods tools and technologies essentially below the radar moreover as disruptive elements they need not be mass-produced or stockpiled but rather there ingenuity is that they're able to be assembled in situ in relatively low quantities and used with specific Effects against individuals and small groups to be able to incur disruptive effects not only within that organism or that group of organisms but beyond the organismic level to the system's level to the social level to the geopolitical level there's great power that can be leveraged

there clearly what we can do is provocative therefore what we should do remains at issue ladies and gentleman I do not have answers for you but I will post several questions and possibilities One of things we have to understand is that this represents if you will a bio scientific Speedway consider the true Speedway lots of entries I've already shown you the entries very fast pace the speed of translation from concept to construct in the brain science is about 60 calendar months and increasingly that's being compressed so the developments in the brain sciences that reach a

tech readiness level can be achieved within 48 calendar months it's Very passed certainly we know not only there are many entries it's very fast but the prizes are tremendous economic prizes prizes of notoriety and the biomedical front prizes of power capability and weaponization on the wins front weaponization intelligence national security front we also recognized that there were risks and possible harms not only to those who are on the track but to those who surround it so the idea is if in fact we're going To move into this space how can we move into the space

with some prudence how do we move into the space pragmatically and how do we move into the space in such a way that is prepared our group was tasked with developing these protocols and paradigms and referred to them as the operational or a technology risk assessment of mitigation paradigm the on-ramp to the neural biotechnological Speedway if you will I'm gonna bore you by reading the slide but I do want you To pay particular attention to the lower box that's Zig Brzezinski in 1970 he was prescient at forethought foresight and said in 1970 in the coming

decades we will see an increasing viability and value of being able to affect the neurocognitive space there was something of the sort of crystal ball in that statement we are there and increasingly will be ever Deeping we there based upon not only our own initiatives but those initiatives of Groups around the country this is a space that we need to at least be prepared for a simple precautionary principle will no longer obtain Y number one it shouldn't number two its anachronistic just because we recognize that in some cases the risks may be high and there

may be certain benefits a simple precautionary principle says if the risks when threats outweigh the benefits don't go however we need to also be equally prepared it and take a More advanced precautionary principle that says you must examine the potential the probability and the possibilities of what those risks and threats are relative to the benefits of a stance of preparedness and preparedness very often includes engaging the research to understand how these things work and how they can be used how do we do it well these are some of the contingencies that I offer simply as

proposition for you I ask you to consider them number one what Is the technical rightness of any an oral form of neuroscience and technology in these types of agenda what a key situational variables that may be germane to its use or non-use is there a valuation or some revision of the various ethical concepts that I'm able to guide these uses in practice and might we need to develop in some cases new frameworks new foundations of ethics that are more applicable given the fact that the science and technology may be Running at a speed to which

our ethics and policies may not yet be a pace I'm not going to bore you with these contingencies but what I want you to do is pretty much go down to the very very last one the idea here is can we utilize neuroscience and technology and if the answer is yes we can should we and if the answer there is we already are and there are some domains and dimensions by which use should be advocated for example non-lethal ad Least harm doing less harm than other forms of interventions and engagements that are currently in use

being able to mitigate individuals capacity or willingness to engage in volatility in other words improving the capacity of the capacity for individuals to gain capability to get along well perhaps there's some value there if these things is going to be used in a more weaponised approach are they being used In those ways that are less harmful than other extant weapons end or what are the postures that we should adopt if in fact another nation utilizes this form of weapon ology what represents what I would consider to be comparative or appropriate proportionality and ultimately if in

fact we're going to move into this space and I think we are moving into this space realistically not only now but ever more in the future we have the obligation responsibility to Assess whether or not the contingencies for consent to treat our own people are in place in other words if there are things we're going to do to optimize the performance and capabilities of our own personnel and there are things that are being done on the world stage inclusive perhaps by us and our allies that could mitigate effect or manifest change in other personnel are

we prepared to accept those responsibilities the responsibilities for ongoing research Responsibilities for ongoing clinical care not only of ours but internationally because of the role that the United States and our allies plays and because of the need to take an upstanding moral front with regard to the fact that as we develop weapons and his weapons are developed by us our allies and by others the preparedness Stan says we must also be equally assumed equally in position to be able to not only counter those weapons but Mitigate and treat the effects that those weapons incur and

in fact historically very often what we've seen is that that has been the interesting march of science technology and medicine where advancements in medicine very often arise as a consequence of the possible utility of various forms of science and tech to be weaponized and the damage that they incur but the question still comes up ladies and gentlemen what ethics shall we use to Guide research test development and perhaps utilization of neuroscience and neuro technology in these agenda and initiatives clearly here in the United States as with any Open Society or military has relative transparency to

the polis for our intents our goals and our operations absolutely certain things are held confidential and classified you don't show the other team your playbook on Friday and expect to win the game on Sunday yes of course and information we May understand about what they're doing by virtue of our deep and our intermediate surveillance may also be net make kept close to the chef's if you will but the transparency of military intent operations goals and interventions here in the United States has been paramount to the nature and fabric of our infrastructure our politics and our

government and the same is true for our allies so at least part of this needs to Be at least relevant to afforded by and guided through civilian ethics why because in many cases it is the civilian institutions that to date have been involved at least some of the research and development that can be up taken into dual or direct use agendas and as such these things are subject to and I think validly subject to civilian ethics of Science and Technology or biomedical ethics but if we move increasingly away from that if we say that indeed

the Prescriptions and prohibitions such as those that are being proposed and leveraged by the European Union human brain project end throughout the world by things like dual use research of concern treaties such as that which was developed at som are are taken to heart and civilian agencies institutions and organizations are essentially sort of demanded disbanded debarred from their engagements in these types of activities who then will uptake the torch Increasingly there's been some interest consideration a real discussion as to reinvestment in government agencies and government-sponsored agencies that are specifically and explicitly dedicated to these pursuits

so to avoid any confusion what the intent is and to also avoid any confusion as to who's doing what we don't want to get another scenario such as we do the robert Oppenheimer looking at the first test of the atomic bomb and going what have I done I am deaf dr. Oppenheimer what did you think you were doing we don't have those confusions we want to make sure that in fact those who engage the brain sciences or biomedical purposes of wellness lifestyle enhancing the human condition are not necessarily confused with those who may then uptake

these things into wins agenda but if that's the case and these things are moving more into governmental institutions organizations and initiatives are civilian ethics even Viable any longer and if we engage military ethics what military ethical principles will be engage the use development research surveillance of these particular things for just more and if in fact these things are not used in a strictly warfare fashion where war is declared by the use of these agents yet they still tend to be bellicose or disruptive can we then say that we can justify their use in other words

not just a just war but they're just use Within this frame of conduct whatever this may be Endor can we revive another older and less known tradition which is called use contra bellow which is justification for the use to prevent warfare here the use of the neuro cognitive sciences and intelligence Human Terrain teams psychological operations such as narrative networks may be viable to de-escalate the volatility and vulnerability towards violence and combativeness but again we Need to consider to what level we will engage us and whether or not the current ethics that we have in place

are viable and valuable to do this and how these things can then be rendered on the international scale because if in fact this is going to demand the multinational global discourse that it will then clearly the global relevance of any ethical approach needs to be considered and ethics very often is said to have a big mouth but no teeth but Policies and international law has choppers that can in fact be attributed and can bite what do these developments then incur for ongoing iterations of biological toxins and weapons convention as well as other treaties policies and

international laws that may help to guide direct if not regulate and govern the use of these particular implements so the situation were faced with ladies and gentlemen is as follows as we begin to untangle the Gordian knot of the Brain to the development of neuroscience and technologies we've come to the precarious position of opening the proverbial can of worms of if how in what ways to what extent and when these techniques and technologies will be used in weaponized intelligence and national security agenda I submit to you ladies and gentlemen that Kant has already been opened

it'll be our job and increasingly your job to be able to navigate this new Terrain this brave new world and what it incurs this is Atlas the idea of Atlas was the Atlas balance the integrity and well-being of the world upon his shoulders I disagree Atlas of the 21st century as you see here balances the world upon her head what we know about the brain were able to do with the brain of all those organisms that are embodied and have one that exists in their various environments cultures and ecologies Because the brain sciences in its

technologies confer tremendous capability of knowledge intervention with tremendous capability comes tremendous power and with tremendous power comes great responsibility look that phrase is good enough for spider-man certainly was good enough for gurth a Nietzsche certainly good enough for me and I hand that off to you because ladies and gentlemen as I started this neuroscience puts the brain In our fingertips whether that's to help to heal or Tom is simply the effect of the human condition and how we put this to play you will in your professional careers and your personal lives see the brain sciences

evermore infiltrated and integrated not only into the battlespace but to the bedside to the boardroom and beyond they will be a part of your realistic lives in the way we engage each other's regard each other treat each other interact and perhaps Enter into combat understanding the brain sciences and their power will become one of your obligate responsibilities not only as military offers officers but as civilians of the 21st century global space I'd like to end a lecture like this usually by giving you a personal story my dad former Navy man was an engineer and one

of the things dad liked to do was build stuff like to tinker I still like to tinker I like to work with tools my dad Was a really bright guy one of the things he did when I was a kid he'd come home every month and bring me a new tool teach me how to use it so they're fairly shorter I was a young kid I became pretty adroit or at least I thought I was a droid with using tools and with all of the impulsive nough sands eel of youth getting a new tool with

only partial knowledge I remember one day dad came home and he said to me Jim here's a brand new tool I took it from I said Thanks dad I went to go running off my dad put his hand on my shoulder he said Jim slow down measure twice cut once sometimes you can't go back ladies and gentlemen these are the brain sciences they can and they will increasingly be used in national security intelligence and defense agenda globally we need to measure twice and cut once and make sure that the cut that we make is one

that is for good one that is for right and there's one that does Not cut our own throats with the throats of others in those ways they're irreparable I leave you with my father's wisdom these are some of our white papers that we've submitted to the strategic multi-layer assessment group of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon I can make these slides available to you these are now all open domain and available to your perusal if you're interested in some of our ongoing work by my research group I provide you with some of our own Work

and this is the part of the lecture I'm gonna look right at the camera there's the unabashed it's self promotional plug if you're really interested in this I've only had the Wonder and opportunity to engage with you for about the past hour or so if you're interested in going further down the rabbit hole and reading about this in greater detail granularity and specificity I recommend this to you not because I'm gonna go out and buy the new Maserati when you all buy the book but because I'm very proud of it and I'm proud of it

not because I wrote it because I only really contributed a couple of chapters I'm proud of it because bringing this together was a multi-year effort that grew out of a set of it first somewhat sensitive but unclassified and some classified conferences that we had that was then subsequently Declassified and then also brought together international leaders In the field of military science bioengineering neuroscience philosophy ethics and law to provide their perspective their lens their vision and voice as to what's going on in this domain at this point with some speculation vision and proposition as to what

may need to go on in the future so is able to opportunies the capabilities of the brain sciences and meet and be prepared for the challenges that it offers in this space at this point I'd Like to thank you all for your attention I hope I haven't bored you if you wish to get in touch with me feel free just put in your subject line USMA so I don't think you're trying to sell me viagra not that I wouldn't buy it but this way I know where it's coming from if you want to ask questions

you have some time to do that now if you don't get to your questions feel free to email me I will email you back it may not be that day or even that week because I may be busy or Traveling but I will in fact email you back because that's my obligate responsibility to you thank you ladies and gentlemen for your time if you guys have any questions we have about 5-10 minutes yes sir oh yeah well it's the different number of different books the new book there is that the idea psychedelic drugs had some

bad research and of course some of that bad research was not only procedurally bad it was based upon the the the font of Knowledge we had at the time having engaged in psychedelic research that's not well maybe some well having engaged in psychedelic research one of my first projects actually was looking at methylene de acción feta mean ecstasy under United States Navy grant for the possibility of weaponizing ecstasy as a volatile agent is viable agent particularly against submarine errs so the understanding that the psychedelics could in fact be used in a variety of Different ways

inclusive of weaponization is not new we look back to the older project such as MKULTRA mind control ultra which utilized lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin to be able to alter the cognitions emotions and behaviors of individuals to see if that could be leveraged not only against our own people but against others some of the whole brainwashing mind washing mind changing effect however one of the things we've come to recognize is that The mechanisms of these psychedelic agents is far more specific than we thought and in fact can be incurred at far lower doses than were

heretofore attempt at either experimentally or in social practice so there's a regenerated interest revivified interest in reexamining the mechanisms and effect of these psychedelic compounds inclusive lysergic acid diethylamide so siphon dimethyltryptamine as well as some that are sort of like borderline on what Might be considered a psychedelic such as the affiliative drugs like MDMA at micro doses or sort of intermediate micro doses not only to treat individuals who had particular neuropsychiatric spectrum disorders and there's a growing body of research that would suggest that even one-time administration of a therapeutic dose of LSD or psilocybin and

or MDMA may have very profound therapeutic effects against certain forms of PTSD Intractable depression and beyond the military framework even certain forms of psychosis we also recognize that these things may be useful in treating forms of TBI other forms of psychiatric neuropsychiatric disorders and may also be viable as performance enhancers particularly if given and a very specific regimen at a very controlled asymmetry so to think like so many other things the more we're learning about the Brain suggests to us not only what we know but what we didn't know some of the errors in our

previous ways of experimentation empiricism and that allows us to revisit these things under a newer and I think more granular perspective that I think may benefit demonstrate certain benefits as well as giving rise to concern about certain burdens and risks so I think that it certainly warrants continued research and I think that we need to be cautious In how we interpret that research in its translational effect but I think there's great benefit to be gained there did I answer question other questions yes yes in fact I can tell you some ongoing research that being done

now by the Air Force Research Laboratory it's looking not only at the comparative use of what's called NOAA tropic agents as you said modafinil and some of the newer ones they've been around for a while but they're sort of new with regard to the Light of their potential utility some of those drugs like as a parasite and primer asset and walks around town these have been around for a long time but now we're understanding their mechanisms a little bit better and we're recognizing how many be able to use them in concert with other agents inclusive

something like caffeine and or how we can also utilize these agents at lower doses that are much more safer dose that can also then be Co potentiated through the use Of various devices here we're talking about the transcranial devices such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transporting electrical stimulation and if you're interested in some of this work I refer you to a colleague of mine who's at Air Force is a wright-patt and his name is Andy McKinley just look up some of dr. McKinley's work in this area it's stellar it's it's leading-edge and the Air Force

Office of Scientific Research is funding a number of Different projects that are looking at exactly this this mechanism can we engage certain brain substrates nodes and networks through the use of new pharmaceuticals or older pharmaceuticals that are reduced or pharmaceutically delivered in different ways to mills to maximize key aspects of the processes of those neural functions that are operative in key tasks the intelligence operator warfighter and in so doing can we then take a slightly Different stance on our postures towards the viability and value of these drugs under controlled circumstances for the warfighter intelligence operator

and I think that's the general idea okay good answer question cool other questions going once going twice thank you [Applause]